I have nothing particularly against 4e D&D (I am currently enjoy playing in a campaign), but I have to say it isn’t D&D. That isn’t a bad thing, it just has changed so much that it is no longer the same game. Which is okay, as I like playing all kinds of games: D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Runequst, etc, etc.
Both v3.0 and v3.5 seemed like a logical evolution from AD&D. You could look at the system and see how things evolved from v2. A cleric was still a cleric, a fighter was still a fighter and so on. But 4E does not seem have that connection. It is a completely new game. This caused my initial negative reaction to it. It called itself D&D, but it wasn’t. Once I got that out of my head and began to play the game not as a D&D game, but rather just a new system that happens to be called 4e, I started to enjoy the game a lot more.
I don’t think I will never migrate to GMing a 4e game, I still prefer the type of game I get in 3.5 for that (dark, gritty, and often pyrrhic for the players). But I can enjoy the occasional 4E game. That being said I have a few observations about 4E.
- It may be a lot easier to GM, but it is no easier for the player. My GM waxes poetic about how easy it is to set up a game. Great, but I don’t find that the construction simplicity carries over to play. This leads to the next point.
- Combat is not fast in 4E. I’m sure some of it is familiarity, but I have found that combats actually seem to take longer in 4E than in 3.5.
- Combat can be a bit repetitive in some cases as each character has a power that dos about the same thing (deals damage) for about the same damage with jazz being the only difference.
- I hate marking. It slows down the game and I think that there could have been a better way of giving the fighter types more style/oomph in combat. It seems to lead to unnecessary bookkeeping in already long combats.
- I hate having to pigeon hole my character into a Paragon path.
With the coming of cold winter days, Turkey ‘s cake and pudding shops begin serving salep in place of ice cream. On the ferryboats which ply their way between the European and Asian shores of Istanbul, many passengers order steaming cups of this warming beverage. Salep is made from the powdered root of several species of wild orchid, and is both tasty and nourishing. It keeps the body warm in cold weather and increases resistance against the colds and coughs of winter.
In Ottoman times salep was an used – along with ginger, coriander, senna, black cumin seeds, coconut, aniseed and numerous other herbs and spices – in invigorating pastes prepared for the sultans. In winter salep prepared as a drink with milk was sold by street vendors, who kept it warm in large copper jugs on a brazier. Their customers would warm themselves by the brazier and drink salep out of large cups without handles. A traditional drink of the Middle East, salep was introduced to Europe. It became particularly popular in England, where it was sold in salep shops, and served with bread and butter. Gradually, however, as coffee drinking became widespread, its use in Europe died out.
The cream-coloured tubers are either egg-shaped or forked. They are washed and then tossed into boiling milk or water for a short while to remove the bitter flavour and make them easier to dry. They are then dried either in the open air or in ovens to speed up the process. After drying they may be stored whole or ground. The principal substances contained in salep vary according to the time of harvesting, but basically consist of mucilage, starch, sugar, and nitrates. The colour is generally creamy. Salep is the traditional thickening ingredient in Turkish ice cream, and the substance that lends the characteristic glutinous texture as well as subtle flavour.
Energy 79cal